elxl Network Interface Problems in Solaris 10 x86

From: Tim Evans (tkevans@tkevans.com)
Date: Fri Jul 13 2007 - 10:29:39 EDT


I have an x86 system running Solaris 10, current release, patched up
to Recommended patch level as of a couple of weeks ago.

After the system has been up a few hours, the 3c509c NIC (elxl0) seems
to simply fade out of existence. Network hangs, or becomes extremely
slow. Only a reboot brings it back to life, and then the process
repeats.

I thought this might be full/half duplex mismatch, and have tried
editing /kernel/drv/elxl.conf to force full duplex. This, however,
kills the NIC altogether: at boot time, it generates a rapid stream of
errors indicating the interface is not working at all.

Searches on Sunsolve indicate this is a long-standing problem, going
back as far as Solaris 8 (possibly further). Some folks have posted
solutions that involved booting in DOS and running the 3Com config
utility. These, however, didn't work for me.

Anyone have a better solution?

(FWIW, this system/NIC works perfectly well with both RedHat
Enterprise Linux 4 and Fedora Core 6.)

--
Tim Evans, TKEvans.com, Inc.    |    5 Chestnut Court
UNIX System Admin Consulting    |    Owings Mills, MD 21117
http://www.tkevans.com/         |    443-394-3864
http://www.come-here.com/News/  |    tkevans@tkevans.com
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